Future Rubyist?

…I would say that Rael is primed and ready for Ruby (www.ruby-lang.org). Rael, have you
tried it?

I’m not trying to be pushy or evangelical here, but Rael’s post
reminds me of my own flirtations with Python. I would stick a toe in,
notice how it felt pretty good, and then go back and do real work in
Perl.
It had everything for me except—to borrow from The Tipping Point ( search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2TLSUZ2VRE&isbn=0316316962&TXT=Y&itm=1
)—the "Stickiness" factor. My "anal-retentive >
1/2" kept luring me back to Python, but the smaller—and
apparently more dominant—part of my personality resisted.

When I found Ruby, the majority of my multiple personalities were (for
once) in harmony, and it stuck.

For a fairly interesting discussion of why some have chosen Ruby over
Python, have a look at this nearly-2-year-old thread on the ruby-talk
mailing list. It’s laden with some of the inevitable
"noise" and bird-walking of any open discussion on the internet,
but it also has some interesting insights into why someone would feel
strongly about one (but not both) of two very similar languages: